Students interested in learning more about the field of forensics that has been so widely promoted through the crime scene investigative stories on television need to look no further than Anna Maria College. Not only is AMC launching a Forensic Criminology program in fall 2014, one of its faculty members is the founder of Forensic Anthropology as a specialty to the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME).

Dr. Ann Marie Mires, a Forensic Anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at AMC, served at the OCME from 1996-2009 overseeing identification and providing the specialty of Forensic Anthropology consultation on a variety of cases. In 2008, she joined Anna Maria College where she teaches coursework in Criminal Justice, Forensic Anthropology, and Victimology.

Concurrently, Dr. Mires is the Director of Forensic Archaeology Recovery, a non-profit devoted to applying archaeological recovery techniques to unfound missing person cases. She is interested in consulting with agencies on systematic search and recovery methodologies and in continuing to move these unresolved cases forward for the families of the endangered persons and for law enforcement investigations. She has also served as a consultant to the Molly Bish Center for the Protection of Children and the Elderly at AMC.

Dr. Mires is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and received her MA from the University of Arkansas, and her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts: Amherst.